It's a Thing Thing Thing

It's a pretty rare occurrence to see any kind of arena shooting game lurking on internet-based gaming websites, but even rarer to find any that are able to impress players with both style and substance. This is where the Thing Thing series enters violently and with an arsenal that could make Schwarzenegger jealous and a mix of solid physics, distinguished style, and just enough blood and gore to draw you in for more of the action. While the Thing Thing series is largely story driven, Thing Thing Arena Pro has a more direct approach. It gives you a selection of levels, presents you with a limited arsenal, and asks of you the completion of these levels' various objectives whilst giving you the opportunity to expand your arsenal and even customise your character. It doesn't sound all that challenging, that is until you remember that this is an arena-style game and as such the enemies you encounter are effectively infinite until each level ends. Still got the cojones for the action? Then by all means continue.

Pro Killer

So what's it like being in an arena shooting situation, specifically in the Thing Thing Arena Pro Universe? Well, the WASD keys will facilitate your movement around each of the five levels, and mouse-based aiming is the staple here as well. Use your mouse to move the crosshair on the screen and the left mouse button to fire your weapon. Other keys like E to change your weapon and F to interact with your surroundings (mainly opening doors/pressing switches) are also to be kept in mind. The control configuration is therefore pretty standard, though you can customise it which definitely gives you a bit more freedom than one may be expecting from a flash-based shooting game.

If you're already down with the standard shooting game control configuration, then what makes Thing Thing Arena Pro a little different is that the five levels are split into objectives that you should strive to achieve before the level timer runs out. Objectives such as reaching a certain number of kills, collecting gun parts, and destroying data discs all give you something to strive for during each of the game's five levels (one available at the outset, the rest must be unlocked) so that you can score highly and move on to the next stage. Also justifying Diseased Productions' "arena" suffix to the Thing Thing title is the fact that the enemies you encounter will keep on spawning so long as the level is still going. This makes things quite difficult when you're low on health or ammo, but the challenge is welcome as otherwise you're simply completing objectives for time without your manoeuvring/shooting skills being tested at all.

Weaponry For Victory

If you're not much for third-person shooters without extra-gameplay incentives for keeping your attention on the game, then you're in luck because Thing Thing Arena Pro is about as weapon mad as NinjaKiwi in their SAS Zombie Assault 4 game. If you haven't played the aforementioned game, rest assured that this means you'll be working towards unlocking a juicy array of weaponry from regular pistols to magnum-like guns through to assault rifles and sci-fi guns like a gauss rifle or an acid-spitting rifle. There's even a gun that shoots a slow-moving purple orb that destroys every enemy in its path. The weaponry involved here should more than quench even the most devoted Half Life fan's thirst for firearms of a more creative nature.

Quality As Standard Policy

Some games let themselves down by focusing too heavily on gameplay and letting the visuals, sound, and other considerations slip: this is not the case with Thing Thing Arena Pro. You've got a very clean, smooth, and polished-looking aesthetic to the game as well as top-quality animations, detailed and gory death scenes from enemies, powerful firearms sounds and enemy death screams, and some very good physics that allow you to be creative with your jumps without being too ridiculous or unrealistic. The only problem that could be pointed out is for fans of the series that have enjoyed Thing Thing Arena 3 and who are disappointed with the stripped-down nature of Thing Thing Arena Pro ( fewer levels, certain functions removed like double jump etc.), but for most this game should impress and entertain with its content, quality, and entertaining violence.